Matching adjusted indirect comparison of acupuncture versus fremanezumab in the preventive treatment of episodic migraine.

OBJECTIVE: Acupuncture and fremanezumab are second-line treatments for migraine prophylaxis. We aimed to compare acupuncture with fremanezumab in the preventive treatment of episodic migraine by using a matching-adjusted indirect comparison analysis (MAIC). METHODS: We acquired participant-level data from an acupuncture trial recruiting 302 participants and summary-level data from a fremanezumab trial recruiting 875 participants (290 participants received monthly fremanezumab [MF] and 291 received single-dose fremanezumab [SF]). The primary outcome was the mean reduction in monthly headache days. The secondary outcomes were the mean reduction in monthly moderate-to-severe headache days, days with acute medication, and the adverse events rate. RESULTS: Before matching, the acupuncture arm had significantly lower BMI, fewer headache days with at least moderate severity, and fewer days with acute medication. After matching, the baseline variables were comparable between groups. The three arms had no difference in the change of monthly migraine days (MF vs. acupuncture: mean difference 0.3, 95%CI -0.5 to 1.1, p-value = 0.473; SF vs. acupuncture: mean difference 0.5, 95%CI -0.3 to 1.3, p-value = 0.214). The results were similar in the analyses of secondary outcomes sensitivity analyses. Thirty-six (25%) participants in the acupuncture arm reported adverse events, versus 192(66%) participants in the MF arm and 193 (66%) in the SF arm. CONCLUSION: The preventive treatment effect of acupuncture is equivalent to fremanezumab, and it presented with a lower adverse event rate, which indicates that acupuncture can be an alternative to fremanezumab.

Transcriptome analysis reveals the importance of exogenous nutrition in regulating antioxidant defenses during the mouth-opening stage in oviparous fish.

Antioxidant system is crucial for protecting against environmental oxidative stress in fish life cycle. Although the effects of starvation on the antioxidant defenses in several adult fish have been defined, no relevant researches have been reported in the larval stage, particularly during the transition from endogenous to exogenous feeding. To clarify the molecular response of antioxidant system that occurs during the mouth-opening stage under starvation stress and explore its association with energy metabolism, we employed RNA-seq to analyze the gene expression profiles in zebrafish larvae that received a delayed first feeding for 3 days. Our data showed that delayed feeding resulted in downregulation of 7078 genes and upregulation of 497 genes. These differentially expressed genes are mainly involved in growth regulation (i.e., DNA replication and cell cycle), energy metabolism (i.e., glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and fatty acid metabolism), and antioxidant defenses. We demonstrated that the starved larvae are in an extremely malnourished state in the absence of exogenous nutrition, and the consequence is that numerous antioxidant genes are downregulated. Meanwhile, the antioxidant defenses also respond negatively to oxidative stress. After nutritional supply, the expression of these inhibited antioxidant genes was restored. These results suggest that the establishment of antioxidant defenses during the mouth-opening stage depends highly on exogenous nutrition. Our findings would contribute to comprehending the nutritional stress and metabolic switches during the mouth-opening stage and are essential for reducing high mortality in commercial fish farming.

Efficacy of acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis: a trial sequential meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is commonly used for migraine prophylaxis; however, evidence of its efficacy was equivocal. AIM: We aimed to evaluated the efficacy of acupuncture in migraine prophylaxis and calculated the required information size (RIS) to determine whether further clinical studies are required. METHODS: We searched Cochrane library, EMBASE and PubMed from inception to April 23th, 2020. Randomized trials that compared acupuncture with conventional drug therapy or sham acupuncture were included. The primary outcome was migraine episodes. Secondary outcomes were responder rate and adverse event. RESULTS: Twenty studies (n = 3380) met the inclusion criteria. When it comes to migraine episodes, Acupuncture was superior over sham acupuncture [SMD = - 0.29, 95% CI (- 0.47 to - 0.11), P = 0.002] after treatment, while the difference between acupuncture and prophylactic drugs was not significant [SMD = - 0.21, 95% CI (- 0.42 to 0.00), P = 0.06].Both TSA graphs indicated that more RCTs are needed. As for responder rate, the results after treatment showed that acupuncture was statistically significantly better than sham acupuncture [RR 1.30, 95% CI (1.09-1.55), P = 0.003] as well as conventional drugs [RR 1.24, 95% CI (1.04-1.48), P = 0.01]. Both of their cumulative Z-curves intersected with the trial sequential monitoring boundaries favoring acupuncture. Compared to prophylactic medication, acupuncture can cause less adverse events [RR 0.34, 95% CI (0.14-0.81), P = 0.01]. CONCLUSION: Acupuncture can reduce migraine episodes compared to sham one and can be an alternative and safe prophylactic treatment for conventional drugs therapy, but it should be further verified through more RCTs. Available studies suggested acupuncture was superior to sham acupuncture and conventional drugs in terms of responder rate as verified by TSA.

A novel concept of Q-markers: Molecular connectivity index.

BACKGROUND: Drugs derived from botany have been playing essential role in both clinical treatment and pharmaceutical industry, unfortunately our worry is still that its quality and therapeutic efficacy are inconsistent. Recently many scientists launched a new project on quality (Q)-marker of medicinal herbs, this study was thus designed to generate a novel concept of quality (Q)-markers: molecular connectivity index (MCI), and to test and verify the new concept of molecular connectivity index (MCI). METHODS: The first-order term (1χ) was selected to calculate and study quality (Q)-marker for TCM. Houttuynia cordata Thunb. (HCT) was adopted as a model to verify the hypothesis. Volatile oils of HCT were determined using gas chromatography-mass (GC-MS). SIMCA 13.0 and SPSS 21.0 were used to deal with the data. RESULTS: The minimum of the MCI values was 1.273, belonging to the peak 15, but the maximum (12.822) belonged to the peak 34, and the average value of fifty volatile oils was 5.798. The results demonstrated that MCI was the principle component, and monoterpenoid and sesquiterpenoid were also the principle components in oils. Fig. 2a shows peak 5, 24, 34 were the significant ingredients, while Fig. 2b shows peak 2, 5, 24 were the significant components. CONCLUSION: The data demonstrated that MCI was associated with the structure of molecules and the therapeutic efficacy, MCI could directly exhibit the relationship between ingredients and effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). So MCI could be a potential and promising parameter for quality (Q)-marker. Therefore, MCI may be developed as a novel potential concept to control the quality of TCM.

[Characteristics of supramolecular imprinting template on liver meridian tropism of traditional Chinese medicine based on molecular connectivity index].

The molecular connectivity index was adopted to explore the characteristics of supramolecular imprinting template of herbs distributed to liver meridian, in order to provide scientific basis for traditional Chinese medicines(TCMs) distributed to liver meridian. In this paper, with "12th five-year plan" national planning textbooks Science of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chemistry of Traditional Chinese Medicine as the blueprint, literatures and TCMSP sub-databases in TCM pharmacology of northwest science and technology university of agriculture and forestry were retrieved to collect and summarize active constituents of TCM distributed to liver meridian, and calculate the molecular connectivity index. The average molecular connectivity index of ingredients distributed to liver meridian was 9.47, which was close to flavonoid glycosides' (9.17±2.11) and terpenes (9.30±3.62). Therefore, it is inferred that template molecule of liver meridian is similar to physicochemical property of flavonoid glycosides and terpenes, which could be best matched with imprinting template of liver meridian.